Exam #4 HDFS 2001

Risk And Resilience In Emerging Adulthood

  • Most emerging adults find this time period as a time of thriving and flourishing

  • flounder- display low self-esteem; high anxiety, depression, and loneliness, poor academic performance; disengagement from their communities; and high levels of risky behaviors

Postformal thought, or development beyond Piaget’s formal operational stage,

develops as college students make strides in cognition

  • College students have the opportunity to explore alternative roles, values, and behaviors

  • They tend to develop increasingly rational, flexible, and practical ways of thinking

Satisfied partners tend to resemble each other in attitudes,

personality, intelligence, educational plans, physical attractiveness, mental health, ethnicity, and religious and political beliefs

Despite obstacles, most young women prefer to blend work and family

  • Those who continue to achieve usually have 4 experiences in common

Cognitive Attributes

  • Effective planning and decision-making

  • Information gathering cognitive style and mature epistemic cognition

  • Knowledge of vocational options and skills

Emotional & Social Attributes

  • Positive self-esteem

  • Good conflict resolution skills

  • Sense of personal responsibility for outcomes

  • Good emotional self-regulation and flexible coping strategies

Social & Financial Attributes

  • Authoritative parenting style ( Are we surprised at this point?)

  • Positive relationships with peers, teachers, and mentors

  • Finical assistance from parenting or others

  • Sense of connection to the social institution (e.g.; religious, workplace. school)

Worldview: a set of beliefs and values to live by

  • Most emerging adults say this is essential for attaining adult status

Emerging adulthood: ages 18 to 25, when young people in industrialized

nations have left adolescence but have not yet fully taken on adult

responsibilities or roles

Postformal thought, or development beyond Piaget’s formal operational stage,

develops as college students make strides in cognition

  • College students have the opportunity to explore alternative roles, values, and behaviors

  • They tend to develop increasingly rational, flexible, and practical ways of thinking

Dualistic thinking- Dividing information, values, and authority into - right, wrong, we, they,

good, bad.

  • (Often younger college students – lean into absolute truths)

Relativistic thinking- Viewing all knowledge as embedded in a framework of thought. Aware of

the diversity of opinions on many topics.

  • (Older college students – believe in multiple truths)

Commitment within relativistic thinking- Instead of choosing between opposing views, try to formulate a more

satisfying perspective to synthesize contradictions

Identity

  • Exploring breadth and depth of own identity

  • Most students cycle between making commitments and evaluating commitments: a dual-cycle model of identity formation

  • 3 main identity domains include love, work, and worldview

Critics say no:

  • No distinct moment of adult

status

  • The emerging adulthood period is not typical of the majority of

world’s youths

  • Primarily a coping mechanism for those not ready for independence

Proponents say yes:

  • This applies to most in industrialized nations

  • Spreading to some developing nations

  • Early twenties differ from other adult periods of life